Development Chef

Our Client is a specialist school catering business born in 2009 out of a passion for great tasting food  – They are all about providing fresh, delicious and exciting meals that bring a healthy dose of fun to the school day.

Their small, independent, Midlands-based company has a family feel, and focuses on building strong relationships with their teams and clients. This means that their employees, their well-being and the opportunities for development and growth within their business are extremely important to them. They reward their teams and recognize their hard work to make sure they feel happy and valued in their role with them. 

As Development Chef, you will lead, support, and develop catering managers/chefs to deliver a high-quality catering experience aligned with company standards and financial targets across multiple sites. Plan, organize and oversee events like cookery workshops, nutritional awareness. parents' evenings, and cultural celebrations to enhance brand visibility and customer experience

Main Responsibilities:

• Event Management: Plan and coordinate cookery workshops, parents' evenings, and nutritional awareness events. Handle stock ordering, preparation, and setup. Collaborate with school staff for successful sessions.
• Staff Development: Train, coach, and support new and existing Chef Managers. Provide site visit reports, assist with menu planning, and support team calls and forums.
• Operational Support: Assist with WOW days, mobilizations, supporting the production of new menus including special diet menus, meeting with parents, and school coverage during absences.
• Food Quality & Service: Adapt menus to school needs, ensuring high-quality food and presentation considering cost and nutritional standards. Oversee kitchen management, ordering, and hospitality standards.
• Compliance & Safety: Ensure adherence to food safety, hygiene, allergen, and health and safety policies.
• Financial Performance: Complete all entries on the company workbook system and achieve sales targets and gross profit margins while controlling labour and sundries costs..

The Ideal Candidate

They are looking for somebody who shares their passion for serving great tasting food and providing excellent service, maintaining the highest standards at all times, along with the following:

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Excellent communication skills 
• Ability to work under pressure and use own initiative 
• Good financial knowledge
• Confident using IT 
• Gross profit and budget understanding
• Experience supervising a team within a kitchen
• Experience working in a customer-focussed environment

Package Description:

This role is:

• Monday to Friday working - no more weekends!
• Overseeing Approxametley 17 Primary Schools from Stoke - on - Trent to Cheshire
• Paid Millage 
• 40 hours per week
• 52 weeks per year
• £30,000 per annum

You will also benefit from:

• Working for a fast-growing company who would like you to grow with them
• A dedicated L&D team to support you in developing your skills including apprenticeships and training courses that are available for everyone.

Please note, our client expects all staff to share their commitment of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children/young people so an enhanced DBS disclosure will be sought by the company.

Pineapple Recruitment are recruiting for this role on behalf of our client and are acting as a Recruitment Agency.